Living by the Golden Dozen

Here’s a powerful way to pull the best performance out of yourself. First, hang copies of these 12 words where you’ll see them: I do the most productive thing possible at every given moment.

It doesn’t help to look at those words once in a while. Start living by those dozen words now.

Doing the most productive thing possible means just that—the most productive thing. Not make work. Not look busy. Not get by. But doing the most productive thing possible at that given moment, no matter how distasteful, hard, or worrisome the thing might be. This often means facing up to an unpleasant task, heading into a likely rejection, preparing when you need to prepare, and doing when you need to do. Anyone can do it—you just have to want to.

Repeat these four steps until they become second nature: 1) Tell yourself, “I must do the most productive thing possible at every given moment.” 2) Decide what the most productive thing is. 3) Do it. 4) When you’ve pushed that thing as far forward as you can right now, go back to Step 1 and start over.

The Cutting Edge

Often, the most productive thing you can do this minute will be the last thing you want to do right now. The edge between winners and losers cuts sharpest at this precise point.

Winners almost always do what they think is the most productive thing possible at every given moment; losers almost never do.

Develop only qualified referrals in New York into client prospects. When working with referrals, agents often feel compelled to work with every lead, regardless of the person’s qualifications of willingness to commit to an exclusive agency relationship. I believe this is an error. Ask yourself: If this person came from an ad call, sign call, open house, or any other lead generation system, would I pursue the business given the person’s qualifications and commitment?